Child resistant packaging is known for preventing children from opening potentially dangerous materials such as medications. A variety of child resistant containers are known. One particular example comprises a squeezable cap which consists of an inner closure member, usually provided with an internal screw thread adapted to engage with a correspondingly threaded neck of the container, enabling the cap to be secured in a closed position. The cap is also provided with a squeezable outer skirt provided with a pair of locking lugs, eg adjacent the lower end of the skirt. The cap locking lugs are adapted to pass inwardly of the container locking lugs and to be compressed radially inwardly when the cap is rotated to a cap closing position.
The locking lugs engage with corresponding lugs positioned on the container preventing the closure from being unscrewed. Squeezing of the outer skirt of the closure enables the locking lugs to be clear of the container lugs allowing the cap to be unscrewed from the container.
However, such a childproof cap design suffers from a number of disadvantages, including that removal of the cap may be difficult for elderly individuals who may, for example, suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and may consequently suffer from impairment to their manual dexterity in their hands/fingers. Furthermore, the construction of such a cap requires the cap, ie including the outer skirt, to be of a larger diameter than would otherwise be necessary, so as to provide sufficient diametrical space to enable the cap to be squeezed inwardly. In addition, one other disadvantage of the conventional “squeeze and turn” packs is that because they are now common place, children are becoming increasingly aware of how to open them. Therefore, there is an increasing requirement for a pack or closure design that will not be “instinctive” for children to open, but will allow adults to gain access once the adults have read the instructions.
Attempts have been made to improve on such designs. Thus, for example, European Patent No. 0 606 261 describes a child resistant package for storing and dispensing potentially dangerous materials, such as medicament tablets or the like. The package comprises a bottle provided with a collar, secured over the upper portion of the bottle, and a closure which may be secured to the bottle by means of corresponding screw threads. The collar includes a pair of resiliently deformable spring-like push tabs which include vertical extensions capable of engaging interlocking teeth on the innermost surface of the closure skirt. To remove the closure the push tabs are manually depressed prior to applying unscrewing torque to the closure.
However, whilst the package described in EP'261 is suitably child resistant, the design still requires a secondary closure mechanism, eg corresponding screw threads and requires the collar to be assembled onto the bottle prior to the closure being screwed on.
Therefore, there remains a need for a relatively easy to assemble child resistant container which may still be readily opened by those lacking normal manual dexterity.